Who says you can't teach a new guv old tricks. With the adroitness of a seasoned political operative with twice her experience, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has executed a political hit that went undetected. Which is the way it is supposed to be. In a word it was brilliant.

Some of her previous attempts at cloak and digger manipulations have not been nearly as graceful. One need only recall the ham-handed and clumsy effort to select a new Democratic Party chair which ended up in an 18-month debacle that was just un-debacled itself in the last few weeks.

The affaire-Faylene, however, was a textbook study in how to remove a seemingly unremovable object without leaving any Granholm fingerprints. The governor never lifted a hand; never made a phone call; never got personally involved other than to sit around the table with all her operatives who knew what to do after she gave the marching orders.

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Here was the problem. The always effervescent Faylene Owen, spouse of former Democratic candidate for governor Larry Owen, announced weeks ago that she wanted to run for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. She had the backing of one of the major players in the state Democratic Party, AFL-CIO prez Mark Gaffney. In a dogfight, you'd want the blustery Mr. G in your corner.

As pointed out in this space several weeks ago, the rub was the governor did not want Ms. Owen to get the nomination. She never said so publicly. She didn't have to. Enough folks said it for her behind the scenes.

During the last race for governor, Faylene's verbose hubby Larry uttered some things on Public TV about Granholm that she didn't like. To add insult to injury, Owen chaired a so-called independent committee for his pal Jim Blanchard who was running against Granholm. A ton of negative ads attempting to tarnish her image were run. Suffice it to say there's been bad blood ever since and that flowed into the MSU race.

"No way in hell is Faylene going to get that nomination," boasted one of the Granholm insiders. The trick was to finesse a way to get Faylene out without the governor being labeled a heavy-handed and vindictive thug … like some other governor we know.

In fact this governor went to school on the very public miscues Gov. John Engler suffered as he shoved and pushed to anoint this candidate or that, sometimes unsuccessfully. The media had a field day chronicling his stumbles and suggesting he was out of control of his party. Granholm was tagged with that once. She does not want a reprise.

So the Granholm squad quietly went to work. Part of the problem was Gaffney. A way had to be found to unhitch his wagon from Faylene. If she lost Gaffney, there was no way she'd get the nomination. The United Auto Workers union did her in when it endorsed somebody else for the MSU slot on the ticket.

That somebody else was Phil Thompson. The Lansing labor leader wanted to run for the MSU board two years ago but graciously stepped aside to allow another labor hancho to have another try. It was now his turn.

After losing the UAW endorsement, Owen got the message. Gaffney could save face by saying he could not endorse her because all the unions wanted to endorse Thompson. So she announced she was dropping out of the race. The somewhat porous cover story was that she was unaware that Thompson had dropped out of the contest two years ago and once she discovered that, she decided to step aside for him. She gets good marks for being a trooper and not putting up a fuss over this turn of events that left her on the outside looking in. Hence there would be no bloody floor fight in the convention over the MSU nomination which the media would have relished, but the governor and et. al. wanted no part of.

Owen further suggested that she saw no evidence that Granholm had anything to do with all this. Exactly. No one, including the unsuspecting public, was supposed to see this deft display of political marksmanship.

As one source chuckled in referencing the governor, "She's learning." No kidding.

- Tim Skubick is the longest-serving member of the State Capitol Press Corps, with 34 years of covering Michigan government and politics. His column appears